Are All Banana Plugs the Same? I Used Four Kinds

Is there really a difference between banana plugs, and is one actually better than the others? Every speaker I build ends at the same place: two wires and a pair of terminals, and bare wire into a binding post plays just fine. But I test a lot of speakers, I swap them between amps all the time, and I make my own speaker cables, so how I finish the end of that wire matters to me. I've used four kinds of banana plug on my bench. Here's what each one did well, what bugged me, and the one I settled on.

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Banana plugs vs bare wire: why I went with plugs

Bare wire works. I went with plugs for two reasons: convenience, and keeping the copper covered. With a plug on the end, hooking a speaker up or pulling it off takes me a couple of seconds, which matters a lot with how often I'm testing builds. And a good plug locks the wire in and keeps it covered instead of leaving strands out in the air.

That second part is what I kept coming back to. Copper strands that are left loose or exposed can oxidize, and over time the signal quality degrades. So for me it was never really "plug or no plug." It was about which way of finishing the wire keeps a tight, clean connection for the long haul. That became the one idea I judge every plug by: a speaker connection is only as good as how well it holds, and how well it keeps the copper covered, months after I make it. That's where the plugs I tried started to look very different.

The common twist-on plug

The first kind I showed is the one that's sold pretty much everywhere. Monster Cable makes them, Sewell makes them, and a lot of other companies do too. The back twists off, the wire slides through, and the strands get spread around the outside before it screws back together.

They fit very tight in the terminals, and I like them for testing when I need to throw something on really quick. But I'm not a huge fan of them for the long term. Spreading the strands out evenly can be a pain, and uneven strands are the ones that can oxidize. Really stiff speaker wire was hard to get down in there at all. And when the jacket got trimmed back too far, there was extra bare wire left inside the plug that could oxidize too. They work. They're just not my favorite.

Flexible pin plugs: the ones I keep around

A similar style that I absolutely love is the flexible banana plug. It has a bendable gold tip, and it's made to go into spring-clip terminals, the push-down kind on speakers and older receivers that don't take banana plugs at all.

Two things won me over. One, they let me hook up speakers and amps that don't have binding posts, so I reach for them a lot to quickly test less expensive speakers. Two, the bend. A stiff plug sticks straight out of the back of a speaker, which means the speaker has to sit at least that far from the wall, and that's a problem for wall mounting. A flex pin bends in any direction, so the speaker can go where I want it. They usually cost a little more than the stiff versions, and for me they've been worth it.

Locking plugs, and the cable pants problem

After that came the locking banana plugs I got from Parts Express (they don't sell them anymore). Going in, I really liked these, and on paper they solve the oxidation problem. The barrel unscrews and a set screw locks the wire in. Once that's done, the plug stays exactly where I leave it. Some people even solder the wire ends before they go in, which prevents oxidation, and that's one of the nice things about a design like this.

Then I found a couple of things I didn't like that I hadn't even thought about. The first was cable pants, the little two-conductor boots that make a finished cable look clean. On this style, the boot goes on before the plug, so I had to split the wire further apart just to fit it. The opening on the plug is also pretty small. When everything fits, that's great, because the boot sits snug and looks really good. But I had one wire come out (I might not have tightened it all the way), and because the boot was so tight, unscrewing the plug can ruin the cable pants. I like these, but they're not my absolute favorite.

My favorite: dual set screws

My favorites are the dual set screw plugs made by Nakamichi. They're very light compared to the heavy locking plug. They do have a big end on them, which I don't love, but that's a compromise I was willing to make.

The reason is the two set screws. The top one bites the copper and the bottom one grips the wire's insulation, so I get an extremely tight hold. That thing is not going anywhere. Better still, the cable pants slide on over the top at the end. A lot of people, me included, have finished the set screws on a plug and then realized the boot never went on, and had to undo all that work. With this design, that isn't an issue. One thing I noticed: they're really hard to plug into a binding post at the beginning, because they hold such a tight seal.

Nakamichi isn't the only company that makes this style. I also went with set screw plugs when I made my own HiFi speaker wire, because to me they look a lot nicer and hold a lot better.

Where each one ended up for me

• Common twist-on plugs: quick testing, but not what I'd pick for a permanent setup.
• Flexible pins: testing and long-term, and my answer for spring-clip terminals and wall-mounted speakers.
• Locking plugs: a solid hold, but the boot goes on beforehand, and the tight opening made the boot hard to get off later.
• Dual set screws: my pick for finished cables.

All of them work, and this is my own opinion from using them, not a measurement. For me it came down to how long I wanted the connection to last and how clean I wanted the cable to look. Set screw plugs are what I went with when I made my own HiFi speaker wire, and that video is where I'd go from here.

The other end of the cable

The plug is only half the connection. The Epic HiFi plans call for a gold-plated, insulated 5-way binding post terminal cup, the kind that takes a banana plug, a spade or bare wire. I think about my plug choice alongside the terminal and the amp, whether that's a powered build like the Dinas or speakers on my DIY ICEpower amp.

Keep building: The Epic HiFi build · The best shape for a speaker · all my DIY projects

Parts Used and Mentioned

Here's what I showed or mentioned, and the closest matches I can link. The exact plugs in the video are either discontinued or I don't have a working link for them, so I've said which is which. Prices change, check the current price.

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